Environmental Law

A journal investigating issues of environment law and policy on a local, national and international level.

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Articles from Vol. 23, No. 3, July

A Private Property Duty of Stewardship: Changing Our Land Ethic

I. Introduction The king is dead. Feudalism is dead. Despite their deaths they do not seem well buried. Some hear the cry of their ghosts roaming the land, spreading their message of fear. They trumpet that the safest haven against the tyranny...

Confronting the Environmental Legacy of Irrigated Agriculture in the West: The Case of the Central Valley Project

I. Introduction On October 30, 1992, just before a presidential election, President Bush signed an important western water measure, the Reclamation Projects Authorization and Adjustment Act of 1992.(1) The legislation contains forty titles, some...

I. INTRODUCTION Since its inception in 1970, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)(1) has focused government and public attention on the environmental effects of proposed agency action. NEPA establishes that it is "the continuing policy...

I. Introduction The taking issue has displayed wilderness characteristics of the dark wood in which Dante became entangled during his legendary descent into the Inferno.(1) The path has been obscured; the compass has been obliterated; and the...

The South Carolina majority in Lucas,(1) in upholding the Beachfront Management Act,(2) reverted to the takings test that prevailed before the U.S. Supreme Court decided Pennsylvania Coal in 1922.(3) Despite the Court's rejection of that test in Mahon,...

I participated, to some small extent, in the Lucas case, being on the American Planning Association's Amicus Curiae Committee, which filed a Supreme Court brief in the case. The Court neither followed, nor apparently even used that brief. In fact,...

I am a little uncomfortable here. I'm not used to having Ed Sullivan so close to me on the left,(1) and I am certainly not used to having Michael Blumm on my right.(2) I am also a little confused by the rules of this panel discussion. The chairman,...

Large - Just to keep it brief, one fact I always thought was curious in Lucas was in the record - it was in the brief and it was argued, but it doesn't come up in any of the opinion - is that to purchase the property he paid $60,000 down and took a...

If you were to put words in my mouth, Professor Huffman,(1) I would fully expect the great environmental goddess in the sky to come down here and strike me down as I speak. You should be comforted to know that, whether I sit on your right or your left,...

I. Introduction The discharge of storm water into navigable waterways is recognized as a widespread problem responsible for much of the degradation of U.S. waterways. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), "pollution from...

A tremendous amount of effort has gone into analyzing and deciphering Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council.(1) One might reasonably ask why; what is it about the Lucas case that's so significant? One thing that might be significant is that this...

In 1992, the Ninth Circuit closed the most recent chapter in a series of cases concerning logging in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, determining that Congress, in enacting the Tongass Timber Reform Act, remedied the deficiencies alleged by the...

I. Introduction The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided two cases in 1992 interpreting the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act.(1) In Columbia River Gorge United v. Yeutter,(2) the court considered the first constitutional challenge...

I. Political History of Western Water In the spirit of this conference, I thought I'd see if I can broaden, just a bit, the issue of title navigability to streams and water resources generally, and give you my view of the public interest as it...